Lewis Hamilton's historic journey can herald new era in Brazil

A pair of comedians, invoking the spirit of dullard brothers Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, jumped out from behind a virtual tree at The Museum, an oh-so-chic fixture of the Sao Paulo scene that was hosting the Hamilton show. One presented him with a Vasco Da Gama football shirt, the inveterate bridesmaids of domestic football here. The other gave him the cat, a symbol of doom that ranks highest in the hierarchy of Brazilian superstitions.

Hamilton looked suitably bemused by a shirt intended to insult by association, which deepened the sense of accomplishment felt by the perpetrators. These boys have form. Two years ago, on the occasion of Michael Schumacher’s final race, they presented the Weltmeister’s Brazilian team-mate Rubens Barrichello with a tortoise to commemorate his contribution to Ferrari and Formula One.

The cat was less problematic. Though the master of ceremonies screamed hysterically at Hamilton not to touch it, it was too late. Hamilton clasped it in his mitts and smiled broadly; the symbolic value of black felines in Britain flipping the stunt on its head from bad omen to good. Cats are cool with Hamilton. He has a Pussycat Doll on his arm and a black pet at home, Jessie. Hamilton’s father, Anthony, rescued her eight years ago after she was viciously attacked.

“We took her in. Paid for the vet bills,” Anthony said. “She’s not been well. Fingers crossed she makes it through this weekend.”

The episode was more slapstick than menacing. At least we were spared the component raging in Spain. The hit count on the racist Spanish website reached 50,000 following the exposure given to the issue yesterday. Hamilton’s father sensibly had no more oxygen to give it as he watched his son shaping his own response at the head of the field during first practice.

Outside the McLaren hospitality suite Hamilton’s brother, Nick, spent most of the lunch break breathlessly reconfiguring Rubik’s Cube. Anything to take the mind off the matter at hand. Talk of the world championship is almost taboo. The team have taken their cue from Hamilton, whose demeanour is set to bomb-disposal mode. Don’t ask him to up the anti. “You just do the same as you do every other race. You approach it the same way. I will try and do the best job I can,” he said.

Behind the stoic mask, Hamilton’s heart is pumping like the blazes. A world championship awaits. Not the drivers’ championship that Felipe Massa might also win. But one that carries historic import; that plants an altogether different flag on the surface of F1.

Massa, as far as we know, has never been the victim of racist abuse, he has not travelled the same road, he cannot offer the same quantum leap inherent in a Hamilton triumph. A victory for Massa pleases him, Ferrari and Brazil. Hamilton takes the story global. He reaches out to an audience way beyond F1’s traditional constituency.

Johnnie Walker, the sponsor whose brand Hamilton was pushing when the jokers pounced, did not require the input of McLaren’s other driver, Heikki Kovalainen. That is no coincidence. Hamilton is driving this ship already. Ask yourself which racer F1’s commercial godfather, Bernie Ecclestone, would like to take the chequered flag tomorrow. He could work with the youngest champion in the history of the sport, that’s for sure, with its first ethnic standard bearer, the rainbow child of F1.

Even the location is perfect. Nowhere is the global gene pool better represented than Brazil, the host to any number of ethnic variations. Time spent in Sao Paulo, the biggest metropolis in the southern hemisphere, amounts to urban electric shock treatment. Highway 70, the main artery that connects the airport to the action, bears the name of Ayrton Senna; a misnomer since nothing moves quickly on this asphalt.

Mini townships built of unadorned breezeblock topped with corrugated iron, home to the Sao Paulo underclass, are a feature of the roadside furniture. Lorries that would not get an MOT in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fill the ether with their toxic cargo.

The Brazilian flag bears the logo Ordem e Progresso – order and progress. Not in this city, a maelstrom of priapic concrete arranged without the input of a town planner. The random sprouting of self-seeding flora camouflages the essential ugliness of the interior. The favelas are beyond nature’s titivating. But it is inside these walls that Brazil’s dispossessed are nurturing Hamilton fever.

The son of Stevenage slots effortlessly into this mix-raced melting pot, his perceived resemblance to the Manchester City’s Brazilian footballer Robinho reinforcing the connection. Hamilton wears his growing popularity lightly. It is part of an evolving strategy designed to give him the best chance of getting the job done.

Predictably, the pressure question arrows in, the principal string to the journalistic bow. He packages his responses patiently. “I am not fighting any of my natural impulses. I don’t feel

I have to prepare myself any different to any other race but just approach it the same as I did the last race.

“In China I think I had the right package. I come here with great discipline like I did at the last race. We went into China to win but if we didn’t win, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world and it’s the same here. We come here to win. If we don’t, it’s not the end of the world.”

Bunkum, of course; a mental shield to keep the lid on the fires raging below.

In the Hamilton unconscious it’s Guy Fawkes night, rockets going off in all directions. Hamilton was crushed by his failure a year ago to convert a 17-point lead over Kimi Raikkonen with two races remaining. He takes a seven-point lead to the grid tomorrow and none of the baggage that attached in 2007.

The performance to which he alluded in China is the template McLaren are working to in Brazil. Hamilton ended yesterday fourth quickest behind Fernando Alonso, Massa and Jarno Trulli. First up in the morning, none could match Hamilton’s pace until Massa edged past in the final minutes before lunch.

Massa has to finish at least second to make Hamilton sweat. Fifth will be enough for Hamilton.

A new era beckons in F1. The Hamilton years are upon us. As he stepped from his chariot, his day’s work done, he was met by the Pussycat Doll, Nicole Scherzinger. The cat to top them all is attending only her second race. At her first, Monaco, Hamilton won. Sound like an omen to you?

McLaren on glory trail:

Nine years have passed since Mika Hakkinen clinched McLaren’s last Formula One world title, and 10 since the team were crowned champion constructors.
Tomorrow will be McLaren’s 648th grand prix. Since company founder Bruce McLaren wheeled out his first F1 car at Monaco in 1966, the team have won 162 grands prix and 19 world titles – eight for constructors and 11 for drivers.
Lewis Hamilton will be crowned champion if he finishes fifth or higher, something he has managed in 12 of the previous 17 races.
David Coulthard, who retires at the end of tomorrow’s race, believes Felipe Massa is this season’s most improved driver and for that the Brazilian can thank a British ally, Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley – a Middlesbrough-born Manchester City fan.